Bucks County's Moms for Liberty has grown the largest leadership team of any U.S. chapter

Bucks County's chapter of Moms for Liberty has a bigger leadership team than every other branch in the country, according to a review of the organization’s websites.

The local chapter of the conservative parental rights group's leadership team grew from four to 11 members at some point between March 23-30. Several people appear to have stepped into new “district lead” roles, joining Bucks County Chair Jamie Tromba, Vice Chair Angie Cassel, Secretary Emily Cowan and Treasurer Andrea Winstanley. 

The leads added last week include Rochelle Porto, Barbara Garwood, Kimberly Gorman, Allyn Barth, Patrice Pousley, Edward Mackouse and Donna Parell.

These new members have come aboard with the May 20 primary less than two months away, when Republicans and Democrats will choose their party’s nominee for school board races across all of Bucks County’s 13 school districts. And growth of the local leadership team may foreshadow a renewed push for conservative cultural agendas in Bucks County districts.

What is Moms for Liberty?

Moms For Liberty has been a key organizer of the national parents' right's movement that saw renewed life following coronavirus rules imposed in schools and rising tensions over systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Like some local groups and other national organizations like No Left Turn in Education or Parents Defending Education, Moms For Liberty has pushed to implement conservative policies like reforming curriculum on American history, removing allegedly “sexually explicit” library books and restricting access to school sports for transgender students.

Are Moms for Liberty leaders running for office in Bucks County?

Winstanley and Garwood have cross-filed for both parties in the primary for the Bristol Township School Board. Kellie Buchanan, Drew DiDonato, James P. Morgan III, Gallus Obert, Khalif Williams Sr., and Tim Witherspoon Jr. are also cross-filed in that race, and Frank Barnhardt is running on the Republican ticket only in that same race.

None of the other members listed on the chapter's national website appear to be running in any other school board races. But voter registration data suggests that the county chapter may have leadership roles placed in most area school districts.

Is Bucks County the largest Moms for Liberty chapter?

Though Bucks County has more people listed in leadership roles on its local website of the national Moms for Liberty page than any other chapter, that doesn’t mean it’s the largest chapter in the nation.

Moms for Liberty doesn’t publicly post membership totals overall, though some estimates have put its total number of national followers at more than 100,000 people a year ago.

The Bucks County chapter’s public Facebook page said it had 544 followers as of Monday, March 31. It's unclear if those numbers include official members or just people interested in the group, but being a public group there would be no membership requirements on the page.

Official chapters of the Florida-based parents’ rights group may include its top officials, contact information and other details about the local chapter. 

Some chapter webpages are listed as “coming soon” but some of those chapters appear to be active on social media sites such as Facebook and X, formerly Twitter. 

Out of approximately 390 active chapter websites, at least 221 pages list officers on them — typically a chairperson, vice chairperson and treasurer.

As of Monday, March 31, Bucks County’s 11-member team was almost double the six members in Bay County, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina.  

Moms for Liberty prepares for Bucks County elections

Like its parent organization, the Bucks County chapter has been readying for an upcoming election, where four seats will be on the ballot Nov. 4 for every school district. 

Local members met for a “training and fellowship” session at Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Upper Makefield on Feb. 2, according to the Facebook page. A chapter meeting is also planned the evening of April 1 at Giuseppe's Pizza in Warminster.

“We will be taking the time in this meeting to discuss the 2025 School Board Director Races,” a notice on the chapter’s national webpage said.

“Who are the candidates, what do they need to do to win, how can you be of assistance to their campaign and what are some of the hot topic issues that we should be aware and educated on to hold conversations wiht (sic) our friends, family and neighbors?”

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich told the Delaware Valley Journal in January that helping local chapters recruit candidates for school board races was "one of the principal things that Moms for Liberty does."

"Everything from spreadsheets on how to calculate how many people you need to (talk to) win, and how many doors you should knock and how much money you should raise," Desovich said. "Because those tools just aren’t there for candidates for school board.”

What to expect for the Bucks County school board races

Moms for Liberty has typically focused on culture war topics in education nationally and locally since 2021, when slates of Republican candidates in Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts claimed major victories in that year’s elections.

The group’s main organization has focused on “sexually explicit” books in school libraries, transgender students and athletes, and diversity programs over the past few years. These topics have also become hallmarks of recent executive orders signed in the earliest days of President Donald Trump’s second administration. 

Moms for Liberty seems poised to maintain its “anti-woke agenda” as it helps candidates in school board races nationwide.

Members of the local chapter did not respond to a request for comment on what topics could be priorities for this year's election, but the organization's national website could serve as a guide.

The group has two “semesters” of webinars each month via Moms For Liberty University, aka M4LU, on the national website.

M4LU held classes on social emotional learning in January and critical race theory in February, with gender ideology on deck for April. 

Other topics throughout the year include graphic content in libraries in September, and Marxism in November.

Chris Ullery is the data reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer at PhillyBurbs.com and can be reached at cullery@couriertimes.com. Please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.